MAGA censorship scandal? Trump calls for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired in NEW ATTACK on comic

[0:00] This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. [0:09] And in a certain way, it did, because the fact that they just unified, I saw a room that was just totally unified. [0:18] It was in one way, very beautiful. [0:20] For a moment, some thought there might be a reset. [0:26] In the hours following the shooting at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, Trump struck a somewhat somber tone. [0:33] But then within 24 hours, Trump reverted back to usual form, and any restraint seemed short-lived. [0:40] He was back in a combative posture by Sunday. [0:43] In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes, Trump repeatedly attacked the anchor, Nora O'Donnell, personally, and the media more broadly, for the act of asking straightforward questions about the shooting suspect. [0:55] He writes this quote, [0:57] Administration officials, they are targets. [1:00] And he also wrote this, [1:02] I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. [1:09] What's your reaction to that? [1:10] Well, I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would, because you're horrible people. [1:15] You should be ashamed of yourself reading that. [1:17] You're a disgrace. [1:18] But go ahead, let's finish the interview. [1:20] The other thing that he wrote in the interview. [1:22] You're a disgrace. [1:22] I'm not a king. [1:23] What I am, if I was a king, I wouldn't be dealing with you. [1:26] We have some great people in the press, some very fair people, and people that are just on my side. [1:31] But for the most part, it's a very liberal or very progressive, let's use the word liberal, liberal press. [1:36] You'll recall that in the days leading up to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the reporting suggested Trump had already planned to lash out against the press. [1:45] According to the Daily Beast, quote, Donald Trump will launch a revenge attack on the White House media when he confronts them in person at a Washington dinner on Saturday night, then flee before there can be revenge. [1:57] The event was, of course, evacuated before any such speech could take place. [2:02] In his remarks following that evacuation, Trump admitted he had planned to be inappropriate and rough. [2:08] I was all set to really rip it. [2:12] And I said to my people, this would be the most inappropriate speech ever made if I said one, so I'll have to save it. [2:19] I don't know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight. [2:24] And Trump already announcing that he wants to reschedule the event. [2:27] The organizers aren't so sure that's going to be possible. [2:30] Earlier today, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt blamed Democrats and the media. [2:35] This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters. [2:41] By commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media. [2:48] Missing from that press conference, any moment of self-reflection from the press secretary serving a president who has described political opponents as garbage, scum, demonic, animals, the enemy within, and low IQ. [3:05] Who's election-related conspiracy theories have led to death threats against election workers. [3:10] Whose administration pushed rumors that Haitians were eating cats and dogs. [3:15] This as Trump is now reviving his feud with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. [3:19] Calling for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a segment that aired Thursday night in which Kimmel staged a parody White House correspondence dinner roasting the president and the administration as comedians have done at past events. [3:32] Here's the portion that Trump and the first lady seem to be referring to. [3:36] Our first lady Melania is here. [3:42] Look at Melania, so beautiful. [3:43] Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. [3:46] You know, Melania's birthday is on Sunday. [3:50] That's right. [3:51] She's planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does. [3:56] Looking out a window and whispering, what have I done? [3:59] That joke was obviously written and performed before the events of Saturday night, but it's now landing, of course, in a very different political and social environment. [4:09] Trump calling for ABC and Disney to immediately fire Kimmel, calling the segment, quote, far beyond the pale. [4:17] This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. [4:25] Get lost. [4:26] Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use. [4:33] That was Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries responding to Caroline Levitt's criticism after Saturday's shooting. [4:40] And joining me now is David Folkenflick, media correspondent for NPR, and Molly Jong-Fast, contributing opinion writer with The New York Times and MSNOW political analyst. [4:49] It's great to have both of you guys. [4:51] So, Molly, I want to start with you. [4:53] You were at the dinner for part of that evening, but you weren't there when the shooting unfolded. [4:59] But you have a sense of the room, the history of this event, the tension, of course, leading up to that night. [5:07] When you see the president's rhetoric that we've seen, and there have been shifts in it just in the past 48 hours, what is the impression that you are left with here? [5:17] Is there a serious grappling with the nature of political violence and everyone's role in it right now? [5:24] Well, I think there are two problems that are separate. [5:28] One is the problem of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which is at best looks very—the optics on it are pretty terrible, and they always have been pretty dicey. [5:38] The idea that you have members of the government and journalists and lobbyists and all sorts of D.C. swamp all together in a room very dressed up. [5:53] And then I think it's worth realizing, like, we are in a very heightened moment in American political life, and people are mad. [6:01] But people are mad at journalists and politicians and everyone. [6:06] And so I think it's important to sort of pull back and say none of this is happening in a vacuum. [6:11] And I think that the anger that the American people have towards politicians is also sort of spilling out on journalists and why it's so important that things like the White House Correspondents' Dinner probably don't happen anymore. [6:24] And that, you know, we raise that money for those scholarships in other ways. [6:28] Because I think that as much—you know, our job is to cover these people, and at this moment, it really needs to be as clean as possible. [6:37] And I think that even just the mere optics of the dinner are so distracting, and I think they really undermine the fundamental premise of what we're supposed to be doing. [6:47] I understand. You and I talked yesterday when I think so many people were still in shock. [6:54] I was sitting with Eugene in our D.C. bureau who was there and who also has poured so much of himself into planning this dinner, into mentoring young journalists, into the incredible things that this dinner is supposed to represent that people want it to be. [7:08] But there is this tension right now between what we want it to be, what it traditionally has felt like, and just the reality of the moment that we're all living in. [7:18] David, for you, how have you processed the imagery, the symbolism of that night? [7:25] You know, one of the things Molly pointed out to me yesterday was just that there is the gratitude, of course, that everyone is safe. [7:32] But there is also the reality, too, that we as journalists, we've covered so many shootings at which poor schoolchildren and Uvalde didn't have Secret Service people leaping over tables to rescue them. [7:44] And we and our colleagues did. [7:47] And I guess after you see and you experience and you understand something like this, what obligation do we have as an industry, as a profession moving forward? [8:02] Well, there's a lot of jumbled emotions. [8:03] I don't think we have to create a hierarchy of tragedies to acknowledge both the terrible language one feels even unrelated to what happened to folks at Uvalde or at other school shootings or other mass shootings, [8:20] as well as acknowledging the terror and the terribleness of what occurred on Saturday night. [8:25] I was not present. [8:26] I don't think we've seen the president fully grapple with what it is to be engaged in political rhetoric, which is in some ways inciting or affirming the idea of violence or at least violent political rhetoric as part of everyday norm in public life. [8:46] I think there is something to what Molly is talking about with the question of this very this very event. [8:53] I haven't gone in over two decades. [8:55] I don't blame those who do. [8:56] I think it can be useful as well as fun. [8:58] But I do think that there's a time where there's a lack of trust in the elites in American society, sometimes so-called elites, sometimes actually, but powerful figures in media and commerce and business and entertainment and politics, the highest level of politics altogether on this night. [9:16] You know, one was desperately hoping and gratified that there would be no actual violent acts occurred. [9:24] And the one officer who was shot was protected by his protective gear, as we understand. [9:29] But this is a moment where I think, you know, it would be useful for rhetoric to be ratcheted down in all parts. [9:36] And yet the idea that somehow some columnist somewhere, some blogger, somebody on Substack, somebody on cable news, on any of the networks, whatever flavor or variety you like, is responsible for this seems to me to be wide of the mark. [9:48] I just think that there is far too much violent political rhetoric in public life right now. [9:54] And I think it's become very accepted in kind of the conversational vernacular of podcasting and blogging and posting online and, you know, getting things viral on TikTok and everywhere else. [10:06] And at the same time, you know, you've seen that filter down from the top and top echelons of government. [10:11] And I think that I don't know that I blame that for what occurred Saturday night, but I sure would feel a lot more comfortable if the people in prominent positions in all of these institutions would behave themselves in a way one would want to see emulated rather than avoided. [10:26] Well, speaking of some of those implications and people in prominent positions, Molly, I want you to listen to some of acting attorney general Todd Blanche's remarks earlier, implying the reporters critical of the president may have a role here in all of this. [10:40] Many people in this room, if we're going to be honest about it, have done it, has done as well. [10:46] They're just as guilty as a lot of people on X. [10:49] When you have when you have reporters, when you have media, media just being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof, it shouldn't surprise us that this type of rhetoric takes place. [11:04] Molly, are the people in that room, the reporters we know and we work with, are they just as guilty as a lot of people on X? [11:11] I mean, we're at the very beginning of this investigation in the first place. [11:15] I mean, there are so many problems here. [11:18] I mean, one is that we do have a First Amendment and the idea that speech is somehow violence is, you know, pretty nutty. [11:27] And remember, like, we're in a country that has a major mass shooting and gun problem. [11:33] So, like, that would be where I would start if I wanted to stop violence. [11:37] Like, that seems like a very easy one. [11:39] But the second thing I would say is, like, he is standing next to a woman who was a host on Fox News, OK? [11:48] And there are numerous members in this administration who have been on Fox News.